I grew up as an army brat, and we moved every few years. But no matter if we lived in the country or the city, I always managed to do a lot of roaming. Even when I lived in the middle of a modest-sized town in MS, back when I was about 11, I still managed to do a lot of exploring. I recall going with some friends and exploring the town's drainage pipe system, which seemed at the time to go for miles. What an adventure! And of course whenever we lived near the woods, I would always go exploring in them. Now I live next to several thousand acres of mostly vacant land, and still go wandering around on it quite often.

I lived in the same neighborhood the entire time I was a kid, my friends and I would go explore the woods and around the lake for up to about 2 miles away. Once I moved to Syracuse for college things didn't change much, there's an abandoned quarry and some woods near campus so plenty of people would go explore that.

Could be we all have a gene telling us we just have to see whats around the next corner. That's what I've always felt whether walking, biking, boating or whatever. I've always roamed. Still do. Having to see around the next corner has gotten me in a bit of trouble a time or two!

Well if roaming includes exploring then I have done a lot of roaming near where I live. I enjoy exploring. I have explored nearly every street within an hours walk from my house with my dogs. I also enjoy exploring this creek called Rock Creek right by my house. I have been on nearly all of the sections of Rock Creek Trail in the Rock Creek Watershed including the connecting trails for the tributaries of Rock Creek. I have biked the Rock Creek Trail but I also enjoy hiking through the watershed with my dogs. I enjoy hiking with them on the wild side of Rock Creek that does not have a paved trail. I have also gone with my dogs and have followed about 10 of the major tributaries of Rock Creek to their source. I have also followed Rock Creek with my dogs to its two sources. Rock Creek at a certain point splits pretty evenly so that if you are looking at the creek on a map it forms the shape of a "Y" so that is why it has two sources.

I was a roamer. I often didn't even think to call my mom to tell her where I was until after I had already eaten dinner at some other kid's house. We had square miles of woods, creeks, and pastures out behind our neighborhood. We used to roam there all day long, with guns. Almost all of that is gone now, having been converted into suburbian same-ness.

I agree with others above that the world is not any more dangerous now than it was then. It is people's perceptions that have changed. Bad stuff has always happened since the beginning of the world. In fact, by most measures, we now live in the safest situation of any people in history. What has changed besides perceptions (or perhaps coloring those perceptions) is that there are now literally twice as many people on the planet.

Also, there is now an addiction to the news. People used to be more interested in what was going on in their community, with their neighbors, and of course what was happening within their own family. They would base their perceptions on what was safe and unsafe on what was actually happening around them. Now, for some reason it is more important what happens to some other kid six states away than what is actually happening in your own neighborhood. People tend to base their perceptions on safety and security on what happens on TV or what they see on the internet.

We need to ask ourselves: Is it really true that kids are getting snatched up left and right in our own neighborhood, or is it actually the case that abductions are quite rare and we just hear about it every single time it happens across the country because of our addiction to news? One thing to remember about news, is that things that commonly happen do not make the news. Anything you hear about on the news is an aberration, by its very definition.

I think on average, cavers have a better sense of real vs. unreal, safe vs. unsafe, rational vs. irrational, and the relative occurrence of bad things that might actually happen to them than the typical American. I believe this is due to us basing our perceptions on time spent in the natural (real) world and spending less time on abstract fears handed down to us by the media. (It is still difficult to watch CNN or Fox News while eating dinner at a base camp underground) These days, in order to spend time in the real, you have to roam. I hope that somewhere, somehow, there are still roamers being raised.

Anonymous_Coward wrote:I agree with others above that the world is not any more dangerous now than it was then. It is people's perceptions that have changed. Bad stuff has always happened since the beginning of the world. In fact, by most measures, we now live in the safest situation of any people in history. What has changed besides perceptions (or perhaps coloring those perceptions) is that there are now literally twice as many people on the planet.

True, if by "the world" you mean the US in general. In some parts of the country, things are much worse than they were 20 years ago. In my area, a huge percentage of the population have become addicted to meth and heroin in the last decade. It's an obvious, and relatively new problem, and these shriveled, hideous, desperate people are responsible for the large increase in burgulary and violence. And I believe that the "entertainment" that pursues us and the "news" that assaults us are in part responsible for a somewhat darker, more careless attitude toward life and good human relations. Still, these things are no reason to keep your kids in the house.

People really have become incapable of seeing reality, or assessing danger. I have a friend with three kids who will not let them out of the yard. He lives next to a nice patch of woods and a big farm, and his kids have never walked any of it. He says a redneck might come along and rape them. "Isn't it possible?" he asks. "Sure it's possible, but that would be a tragedy, and there is no point in trying to save ourselves from tragedy." He doesn't know what I mean.

Sadly, I suspect that ignorant parents aren't the direct reasons kids aren't out there rooting around. Kids aren't interested. They have too much mind-numbing stupidity to worry about.

True, if by "the world" you mean the US in general. In some parts of the country, things are much worse than they were 20 years ago.

Actually, I meant "The World", not just the USA. I'm not denying that there are trouble spots, but I just don't buy the hype that the times we live in are somehow more dangerous or less secure than other times in history. My Dad likes to point out that today protesters are sprayed with pepper spray by cops. He remembers a time when protesters were shot dead by the National Guard. Try telling somebody that fought the Nazis what a formidable global foe that Al Qaeda is. A statement like that is laughable to those that have lived through truly dangerous times.